CHANDIGARH: A recently published study which included Chandigarh, Srinagar, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad as centres showed that in elderly population, out of 488 patients in the out-patient departments, three-fifth were diagnosed with first episode of depression while one-third had had a history of substance dependence syndrome. Indian Association for Geriatric Mental Health’s multi-centric study on ‘Depression in the elderly: Symptom profile and influence of gender, age of onset, age at presentation, and number of episodes on symptom profile’ has been published in the Journal of Geriatric Mental Health.

The study was conducted in six different states. The patients were above 60 years of age. About two-third of the elderly had symptoms of feeling helpless (71.7%), often getting restless and fidgety (70.1%), dropped many of their activities (68.4%), frequently feel like crying (67.4%), trouble concentrating (67%), feel pretty worthless (66.4%), frequently getting upset over little things (64.8%), and not satisfied with life (62.9%). More than two-third of the sample had all the symptoms of anxiety. Depression in the elderly is associated with higher rates of difficulties with activities of daily living. “Unfortunately, depression in the elderly is often underdiagnosed and is considered a part of ageing,” said Prof Sandeep Grover, corresponding author and psychiatrist at PGI, Chandigarh.

The highest number of patients were from Ahmedabad centre (25.4%), followed by Chandigarh (23.6%) and Jodhpur (17.4%). There were fewer patients from other centres — Kolkata (18%), Mumbai (5.5%), Lucknow (5.3%) and Srinagar (4.3%). The study revealed that one-third of the participants had a history of substance dependence syndrome, with significant difference between the two genders, with substance dependence being double in males, when compared to females.